


Out of Control

by MisterDoctorProfessorPatrick



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), F/M, Rating will change, but it's not over the top, might be a bit dark for some folks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-03-22
Packaged: 2018-05-18 18:14:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5938222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MisterDoctorProfessorPatrick/pseuds/MisterDoctorProfessorPatrick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their transformations had a glamour on them, Tikki had told her, back when she’d first become Ladybug. The glamour would prevent any accurate rendition of Ladybug from being reproduced. In any image taken, her face would be blurred, unrecognizable. Any artist’s depiction of her would never be accurate. Security cameras would only see a blur. Videos would be distorted (a recent addition, Tikki said). Even people’s memories got scrambled. The only thing that they would remember would be her suit, her yo-yo, and the sense of presence that she would undeniably carry with her.</p><p>It was a thankless job, Tikki had said.</p><p>Marinette hadn’t cared about that, though. Her first question had been about Chat Noir’s perception of her. Untransformed, she could only remember vague details about his appearance. Wild blond hair, vibrant slitted green eyes that vigilantly watched her every move, and a flashing toothy smirk.</p><p>If she could remember those little parts of him untransformed, what would he remember about her?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sketches

Their transformations had a glamour on them, Tikki had told her, back when she’d first become Ladybug. The glamour would prevent any accurate rendition of Ladybug from being reproduced. In any image taken, her face would be blurred, unrecognizable. Any artist’s depiction of her would never be accurate. Security cameras would only see a blur. Videos would be distorted (a recent addition, Tikki said). Even people’s memories got scrambled. No one would be able to remember the exact shade of her hair, whether it was blue or black or blonde. No one would remember the shape of her lips or the sound of her voice. No one would remember if she was fat or thin or anywhere in between. The only thing that they would remember would be her suit, her yo-yo, and the sense of presence that she would undeniably carry with her.

It was a thankless job, Tikki had said.

Marinette hadn’t cared about that, though. Her first question had been about Chat Noir’s perception of her. Untransformed, she could only remember vague details about his appearance. Wild blond hair, vibrant slitted green eyes that vigilantly watched her every move, and a flashing toothy smirk.

If she could remember those little parts of him untransformed, what would he remember about her?

Tikki’s response had been that as a duo, the two needed to be able to recognize each other suited up, otherwise it would be meeting a new face with the same personality every time. Chat might remember little things about her out of the suit, the color of her hair, her eyes, her height, maybe inflections of her speech, but it would never be quite enough to give her away. Her good luck and his bad luck would prevent that, anyway..

Transformed, it was a different story. Tikki’s magic didn’t just give her an indestructible suit and better reflexes; it also restored her “Chat memories”. As Ladybug, she would be able to know whether the black kitty that showed up with her at an akuma’s doorstep was the real deal.

The only way that they would be able to recognize each other out of their suits was if they willingly told each other, or if their transformations ended where the other could see them. Whether Marinette decided to tell Chat her civilian identity was entirely up to her, Tikki had said. In past incarnations of Ladybug and Chat Noir, sometimes knowing helped, and sometimes knowing hurt.

Marinette went with the cautious choice, and she decided that she wouldn’t tell Chat who she was until she knew without a doubt that she could trust him. The boastful kitty had seemed a little too much like a loose cannon the first time she’d met him, but, in time, he’d proved that he was nothing short of utterly devoted to her.

But even after she came to trust him, after he put himself in the line of fire to protect her countless times, she couldn’t quite find it in her to take the plunge and tell him, despite the haunting want in his eyes.

She left him each time feeling like a traitor.

***

Sometimes, Marinette couldn’t sleep.

Those times were occurring more and more often, too, preventing her from getting anything useful done.

She was passed the point of staring at her ceiling or her alarm clock. Tikki napped on Marinette’s abandoned bed, curled into a ball on the unused pillow, but Marinette stood in indecision between her desk and the ladder to her balcony. She was awake, really awake, the kind of awake that only shows itself past two in the morning, and there was no way that she was sleeping that night.

It was impossible to keep her eyes closed long enough to drift asleep. She tossed and turned and kicked her sheets into knots at the base of her bed. The part of her that had been drilled into keeping itself alert and watchful refused to shut off even when she was safe in her room.

_ It was a thankless job, Tikki had said. _

Originally, Marinette had disagreed. She was  _ Ladybug _ , well-loved and well known. Most people bent themselves over backwards to please her; very few people gave her trouble. Fewer still actually had the potential to cause her real trouble, supervillains aside. Ladybug could walk down the street, and depending on the way she walked, people would either step out of the way or throw themselves at her.

But now Marinette thought that she might understand what Tikki meant.

It was thankless because yelling “Miraculous Ladybug!” at the end of a fight didn’t erase the memories of multiple people trying to kill her.

And because she liked to dwell on it, Marinette thought that she might never forget.

***

Miss Bustier’s sad look and sigh made her cringe, “Again, Marinette? This is getting to be once a week now,” she frowned. She stood with a hand outstretched, the other clutching a small pile of papers that was noticeably lacking one with Marinette’s name.

“I…” Marinette looked down, digging her fingertips into her jeans, “I’m sorry.”

“Your test scores are perfectly fine,” Miss Bustier said quietly, tapping her foot, “but these missed assignments are bringing your grades down.”

Marinette’s gaze flicked from the teacher to Chloe, who was thankfully absorbed in her phone at the moment and not paying attention. Behind Chloe, Mylene offered her a sympathetic smile. “I know. I’ll… I’ll try better,” she finished lamely.

Miss Bustier sighed, “I certainly hope so,” she said, before walking away to finish collecting the rest of the homework.

Alya patted Marinette’s arm consolingly, “It’s alright, Mari,” she whispered, “That assignment was dumb anyway. I don’t know one person who actually cares about authorial intent.”

Putting her face in her hands and groaning, Marinette shook her head, “Yeah, I guess, but I really don’t the stress of grades right now. Or ever, really.” She slumped in her seat, “I’m just too tired to remember every assignment that we get,” she glanced down at the boys in front of her; Adrien was face down on the desk with his arms folded underneath his head, and Nino was watching him with a concerned brow raised.

Nino noticed her gaze and turned around, “That paper won’t matter in a month anyway,” he waved a hand, “It’s just filler. Besides,” he elbowed Adrien, who didn’t stir, “everyone knows that you’re smart. A missed assignment isn’t going to hurt your chances of getting into university.”

“But I know that I can do  _ better- _ ”

“Oh, for god’s sake, girl!” Alya threw her hands up, “Take a breather! Maybe you should take a day off or something. You can just study at home. It’s not like your parents would give you shit for it. They’re  _ nice. _ ”

Marinette slumped onto her desk, “That’s not going to fix the issue. I am so bad at teaching myself numbers.” She stared at the blank board ahead of her in misery. “Numbers are not friends. They are not shaped like friends.”

Alya rolled her eyes and leaned down to punch Adrien on the shoulder, “Yo, sleeping beauty, the teacher is coming back this way.”

Adrien jumped, sitting straight up in his seat and looking around, “Oh, yeah.” He rubbed the back of his head, “Thanks, Alya.” He yawned, his head leaning onto his head and smooshing his cheek, “I could do with another four hours of sleep. Even a catnap would be appreciated at this point.” He smiled at Alya, before looking next to her at Marinette, who had her face on the desk and her hands in her hair, “Uh, Marinette… you okay?”

Marinette waved a hand, not wanting to embarrass herself further by stuttering or blushing, “Nope.” 

A hand rubbed soothing circles on her back, and Alya spoke, “Poor girl is too tired to get much done. Think that you can relate, sleeping beauty?” She pointed at him as Adrien rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

“Unfortunately.” Adrien laughed, and he yawned again. “I wrote mine on the drive over today, y’know, some made-up stuff about the inevitability of death and all that. Teachers love it, especially when it comes to Shakespeare.”

Marinette looked up, noting Alya’s thoughtful expression.

“I should do that, too,” Alya said, “Inevitability of death, you say?”

Both Nino and Adrien nodded, “Works every time.”

“Huh.”

A cough interrupted them, and the four blushed and avoided Miss Bustier’s annoyed gaze.

The rest of the lesson passed slowly, and Marinette caught herself daydreaming staring out of the window to the hall more than once. It wasn’t her fault. Honestly, the blank wall was twice as interesting as the conventions of early seventeenth century literature this early in this morning. Maybe she would think about it later, but at eight in the morning, she didn’t have the attention span for this many words.

“So, Alya, anything new for the Ladyblog?” Adrien said as they walked to their next class, “I heard that there was an attack last night. Somewhere near the airport?”

“Oh! Yeah,” Alya dug her phone out, “An akuma at about one in the morning! Both Ladybug and Chat Noir had to use their special powers, apparently. Chat cataclysmed the runway of the airport, where the akuma was on a plane! I don’t have too much footage of the fight, so I’m not sure what the Lucky Charm was this time around.” She shook her head, “I wonder how those two are doing, though. They seemed beat after the fight, from what people are posting on the Ladyblog forums.” Alya sighed, “Too bad I wasn’t there to see it, you can only trust so much of what people say on the forums.”

“What do you mean?”

“Some of the theories people post on there are so out there, like,  _ too _ out there. There’s been a lot of bad photoshop. That and people have started roleplaying.”

Marinette frowned, “Roleplaying as…?”

“Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

“...”

“Yeah, yeah,” Alya waved a hand, “I’ve told them to put it somewhere else, so if they don’t listen soon, I’ll start banning people. Anyway,” she bumped Marinette with her hip, “I’ve been thinking about making an alert system for akuma attacks. Like, if people see one, they can report it, or if the akuma is fleeing, they can post where it’s going. The Ladyblog is still the biggest Ladybug forum, and Ladybug seems to know about it, so do you think that she’d see it? Even if she doesn’t use it, it could be useful to keep other people away from the fights. At least a safe distance away?”

Marinette looked surprised, “Yeah! I mean, at least there’s a chance. Maybe next time that you see her, you can try to tell her? She definitely knows that you run the Ladyblog. Or,” she grinned, “you can always tell Chat Noir, and I’m sure that he’ll relay it to her.”

“I have something similar set up that alerts me whenever there’s a news article posted about them. It shouldn’t be too hard to repurpose it for the Ladyblog overall?”

The group stepped into their next classroom and took their seats, Marinette reaching into her bag, passed a sleeping Tikki, and wrapping her fingers around a metal tin. She popped a few chocolate covered espresso beans in her mouth and rubbed her eyes.

It was going to be a long day in school.

***

It  _ was _ a long day at school, even if Marinette managed to snag a twenty minute power nap during lunch. She could’ve done with a two hour nap, and then she might’ve been able to approach her calculus homework with a feeling beyond that of existential dread, but as it was, she was just lucky to get home with enough energy to walk upstairs and collapse onto her bed.

Tikki zipped out of her purse, and patted her head in concern, “Marinette, you really need to sleep.”

“I know,” Marinette said, “but first I have to do math that’s less numbers and more symbols.”

“Numbers are symbols, though…”

“Tikki.”

“Sorry! You should really take more than a power nap, though. You’re walking around like a zombie. I know that there was an akuma last night, but you need to take care of yourself, too,” Tikki said, landing next to Marinette and patting her cheek, “You’re really starting to worry me.”

“I worry myself, if we’re going to be honest here.” Marinette yawned and closed her eyes, “Maybe I can just take a short nap and do my homework in an hour or two.”

“Yes! Good!”

“I’ll…” Marinette drawled, “...set an alarm, or somethin’... just gonna take a quick nap...” 

It was not a quick nap.

By the time that Marinette woke up with a start, falling off of her bed with a jolt, the sun had gone down, and there was a plate of cold food and a note from her mother on her desk. The intimidating stack of papers that was her homework was also on her desk. Briefly, she wondered if she could use Ladybug as an excuse.

_ ‘Ladybug accidentally took my homework.’ _

_ ‘Ladybug had to stay in my room, and I was distracted.’ _

_ ‘An akuma ate my homework.’ _

Marinette turned towards her papers with a grumble, digging out a pencil and fishing her textbook out of her bag. Pulling her desk chair out, she sat down and cracked her knuckles, eyeing the math; there had been akumas less frightening than this.

By the time she finished, Tikki was still passed out, too, snoring squeakily, but a glance at the clock told Marinette that dawn was still a few hours away. A car’s tires screeched outside, and someone yelled a muffled curse word down on the street, but besides the usual city noises and Tikki’s quiet snoring, there wasn’t any noise.

Her ears rang, and she shook her head, hair falling in disarray around her face.

Even if she managed to fall asleep again, she wouldn’t get much more than a few hours of rest. The weekend was oncoming, but tomorrow still meant school. Tucking her hair behind her ears, she tapped her earrings. Maybe she ought to make a request as Ladybug for teachers to be more forgiving with homework assignments… at least some of them would listen, right?

“Marinette?” Tikki’s voice buzzed by her ear.

She jumped, hair falling back into her face and a cascade of papers falling to the floor, “Uh, yeah?”

Tikki landed on the desk, “Do you want to go for a run? It might help put your mind at rest.”

Marinette smiled, scooping Tikki up in her hands to kiss the kwami on her head, “That sounds like a wonderful idea. I could go for a little rooftop swinging right about now.” She stood up, turning her back on her desk, “Are you sure that you have enough energy for it, though?”

“It’s not the transformation that’s tiring! As long as you don’t use Lucky Charm, I’ll be just fine!”

Marinette smiled, “There’s no chance of that. Tikki,  _ transformer moi! _ ”

Her shoulders relaxed and she tipped her head back, sighing, stretching in the spotted suit before heading over to step out of her window. But on her way over, Marinette passed her sketchbook, lying open on an unfinished design.

She curled her upper lip. Alright, she had to fix that drawing. It was… bad, and maybe sketching would be stress relieving. At the very least, it was something productive. She grabbed the book, snapping it shut and picking up a few pencils before zipping out of the window. Humming to herself under her breath, Ladybug swung through the near-silent streets of Paris. Only a few night owls were out, and if anyone managed to see her, they didn’t shout or point, which was a relief.

Coming to a halt on top of an old brick building, Ladybug scanned the street below. She hadn’t actually thought this far ahead; she didn’t know where to go exactly, and the more she zipped around the streets, the more she risked someone seeing her. Of course, she could always...

A smile crossed her face for a moment as she got an idea, turning west and swinging down to sprint across the shingles of a row of houses. She passed a party, murmured conversation and jazz trailing out of the window of an apartment, and she passed a couple slow dancing on their balcony in nothing but their underwear. Ladybug had to stop at that one, giving the two women a quick glance before laughing quietly and carrying on her way.

At last, she stopped at the railing overlooking the Seine, crossing her legs and sitting beneath a streetlamp, cracking open her sketchbook underneath the orange lighting. She wrinkled her nose at that last design, ripping out the page to crumple it up and throw it in the trashcan. Some drawings were beyond saving.

She was thankful for the quiet night, breathing through her nose as her heartbeat slowed and her leg bounced. Tikki had been right (Tikki was usually right); the run had helped clear her mind. Ladybug found her thoughts wandering to the akuma the night before as she sketched a quick representation of the purple butterfly mask on the villain’s face. 

Alya’s facts had been pretty spot on. A pilot akuma… a very irritated one, at that. Neither Chat nor Lady had been able to contain the villain, the akuma jumping from plane wing to plane wing until finally, finally, as the akuma was piloting a 747 to the runway, Chat had managed to Cataclysm the asphalt below, and Ladybug had boarded the plane, sprayed a water bottle into the akuma’s face and stolen his hat. Chat had been immensely relieved to see her exit the plane, and his arms had twitched as though he’d wanted to hug her. 

She almost wished that he had.

Ladybug chewed on her lip as Tikki hummed some sort of simple tune through their shared headspace, and before she knew it, there was a pair of catlike eyes outlined in graphite staring back at her through the paper. Her pencil dipped lower, and then there was a smirk to match it.

_ “Marinette…” _ Tikki warned,  _ “you’re drawing him as he actually appears in your memories.” _

A sharp, straight streak of grey interrupted the soft flowing lines of Chat’s hair, “Wait, really?” she said aloud, “I didn’t know that was possible.”

_ “It is.” _

“Oh…” Ladybug looked down at the drawing and frowned, “I guess I should erase it…” she whispered, “but it’s such a good sketch.”

_ “You don’t have to erase it. You were the most relaxed you’ve been in a week when you were drawing that. Maybe getting out some of your experiences as Ladybug helps?” _

“It kind of does,” Ladybug admitted, “but keeping the drawing is a liability.”

But even as she said it, Ladybug sketched the triangle shape of a cat’s ear.

_ “Technically, your diary is more of a liability. You’ve had it since you were fifteen.” _

“True… Maybe, I can just make another secret box to hide this one in… or just say that I was just doodling. Most people would buy that.”

_ “There you go!” _ Tikki said,  _ “Besides, that is a really good drawing; I’d hate to see you throw it away.” _

“I agree. I’ve never been particularly good at people, but this isn’t bad, hmm,” she hummed, “I think that I’ll keep it.”

_ “Maybe it will help you sleep.” _

“Maybe…” Ladybug said, smiling to herself as she doodled a crouching Chat, “Imagine what he’d say if he knew that I was drawing him.”

_ “He’d probably be pretty smug.” _

Ladybug penciled in his expression as smug, “You’re right.”

Before she knew it, she’d covered the fronts and backs of three pages of paper with drawings of Chat. She couldn’t help but feel as though the grin looking up at her felt a little too familiar, but she wrote it off as her just finally remembering his features.


	2. Smudged Notes

Sometimes, Adrien couldn’t sleep.

It wasn’t a good thing for a model to suffer from insomnia. His makeup artists always chastised him for the dark circles underneath his eyes, telling him that a tired model didn’t sell very many clothes. Usually, he just agreed with a soft smile and told them that he’d try and get to bed earlier, but recently, he had taken to just nodding.

Getting to bed earlier wasn’t the solution. He’d been in bed for hours now. His alarm clock told him that it was two in the morning, and Plagg’s loud, cheese-smelling snores had been his primary way of telling him how much time had passed.

One would think that he’d sleep well after getting the stuffing kicked out of him by a supervillain, but every time he closed his eyes, the back of his eyelids was painted with the image of Ladybug disappearing out of his sight and terrifying shriek of twisting metal, and the rumble of cracking rock and stone echoed in his ears. He hadn’t hugged her after the fight. He’d wanted to; his hands had itched the whole way home.

Ladybug could take care of herself, he knew that, but the irrational part of him that was ecstatic to finally have something that was really his own, not something that his father’s name had gotten him, was terrified that his partner would get stolen away.

The fact that her suit was red scared him. Their suits were supposed to be indestructible, one of the few useful facts he’d managed to coerce out of Plagg, but when magic clashed with magic, who knew what was going to happen?

Adrien was terrified that someday her suit would be red for another reason.

That thought kept him up well past his bedtime, into the hours of the early morning. Even exhaustion couldn’t keep his eyes closed; he envied Plagg’s sixteen to twenty hours of sleep a day. He wished that he could nap inside a bag instead of going to extracurriculars and photoshoots.

Speaking of photoshoots, he had a noon one scheduled for over his lunch break in a few hours. He’d have to look alive for it.

Oh well, it seemed as though the makeup artists would be earning their keep.

***

“There are a number of reasons that I avoid the Bermuda Triangle, namely, the terribly tight space aboard a ship, and-”

“Plagg, you can literally fit inside my pocket. And you can fly. Why on Earth would a ship bother you?”

“For the cheese, obviously!” Plagg scoffed. “Human captains have a horrible sense of priorities, and I was never able to pack nearly enough cheese to survive the voyage. They always insisted on barrels of pickles or water. Why would you need water in the middle of the ocean?”

“Seawater is poisonous.”

“...” Plagg scowled, “That… that’s no excuse. Alcohol is poison, too. Has that ever stopped humanity? No. Therefore, I rest my case.”

Adrien rolled his eyes before shoving Plagg back into his bag with a roll of cheese, “Stay there and behave. I’ll be back in about half an hour, hopefully.” He zipped up the pocket and stuck his hands in his jeans.

Plagg wasn’t about to let Adrien have the last word, however, “Half an hour! Ha! Not with those eyebags!”

Deciding to be the bigger person, both literally and metaphorically, Adrien turned away from his bag and walked towards the frantic-looking makeup artist, who was armed with an entire bag of concealers and a dozen brushes.

All things considered, it was a nice day for a photoshoot. It was sunny, but brisk, and there was a hint of autumn on the wind. The photography crew had cleared the park for the most part, but a few unaffiliated people milled about. Out of the corner of his eye, Adrien spotted Nino and gave his friend a little wave.

He had been conscripted to model his father’s autumn line for one final push before the fall season was truly in swing, which meant that after the nervous stylists had declared him camera ready, he was pushed into a heavy wool coat and scarf, and then told to pose nicely on a park bench. He gave the photographer his best it’s-not-like-I’m-exhausted-smile, and tried to relax into a useable pose.

Photoshoots tended to pass quickly enough if he was able to daydream. The actual modelling was dreadfully boring, mostly consisting of the photographer switching between compliments and directions, and snapping dozens of photos of each pose.

He was dragged from station to station, told to change into this shirt, those jeans, that sweater, had his makeup reapplied over a dozen times, was told to look happy, now wistful, now regal, now sad, etc.

He let his thoughts wander, remembering the “good” parts of the akuma attack. Ladybug had held his hand as she swung him over a flying luggage truck, and had winked at him after sending the villain flying with a kick and a, “ _ Bon voyage, monsieur. _ ”

Usually, when he was Chat Noir, the city smelled like fear, smoke, and sweat, but sometimes, in the few seconds he might be given, he was able to sense the cloud of  _ sweet _ that followed his lady around. He was never able to remember what the sweet smell was exactly, not having been around it often enough to figure out what he was smelling exactly, but it was a nice thought. Perhaps Ladybug worked at a flower stand or a candy shop, or even a chocolatier.

Right now, it just smelled like autumn breeze and new, unworn coat.

A flurry of motion caught his eye, and Adrien’s gaze flitted over to see Nino standing with  Alya and Marinette, waving to him excitedly with some sort of drink in his hand. The girls both looked over at him and gave little waves, and he smiled back.

“ _ Magnifique! _ ” the photographer crowed, “Yes, just like that!”

Adrien froze, keeping his expression exact as the photographer danced around him, snapping photos.

“ _ Oui _ , mister Agreste, you are free to go now. We wouldn’t want you to be late for school now, no?”

He freed his face from its expression and rubbed his sore cheek muscles, “ _ Merci, monsieur _ , I’ll get going then.”

Adrien walked back to his trailer quickly, shedding the layers of wool and fabric and putting his usual clothes back on, unzipping his bag briefly to check that Plagg was still there.

“And as I was saying, the Bermuda Triangle is a pretty bad place, but it wasn’t always like that. Oh, what was it, I forget his name, but he was a real piece of work. Anyway, he’d taken my charge as prisoner aboard the ship, and we were both stuck there. In those days, there was no  Bermuda Triangle. It was still just ‘the new world’. But  _ el capitan  _ asshat was a bit nuts, and he ended up throwing my charge and myself overboard. So I cursed the ship.”

“Thanks, Plagg,” Adrien said dryly. “But please be quiet, I’ve got to go eat before I go back to school.”

“No, listen! This is the best part! So since I cursed the ship with bad luck, it sank, right? But the curse didn’t dissipate when the ship sank, it just hang around and sort of ‘poisoned’ the area. So that’s why the Bermuda Triangle is a thing. It was me. It was my fault. I did that.”

Adrien pulled the cackling cat out of the bag and put him in his shirt pocket, “That’s quite the story.”

“I know, right? I don’t even feel bad. Tikki gave me shit for years about it, and now neither of us travel by boat because it  _ never _ ends well.”

“Who’s Tikki?”

Plagg seemed to bite his tongue for a moment, narrowing his eyes before sighing, “Ladybug’s kwami. She’s the responsible one; I’m the fun one.”

“So that’s Ladybug’s kwami’s name?”

“Yes, and she’s an utter killjoy. I do miss her, though… but don’t tell her I said that. We haven’t seen each other in years, since not every Ladybug and Chat Noir likes to share who they are. Last time they did… it did not go well. I didn’t even know fire could spread that quickly. I thought it was more of a ‘slow burn’ deal when it came to arson, but apparently not.”

“That’s very interesting, Plagg,” Adrien made a show of rolling his eyes, “Now, shush, I’m going to go talk to people.”

“That’s a first.”

Adrien ignored him.

As soon as he stepped out of the trailer, he was pulled into a hug by Nino, and a cup of something warm was shoved into his hand. Alya clapped him on the back, and Marinette gave him a shy little wave.

“Well, well, if it isn’t Mister Picture Perfect! You done for the day?” Alya asked, dragging the boys behind her as she walked over to an empty park bench. “We saved you a sandwich, and Nino already handed you the hot chocolate.”

“Yes,” Adrien said, sitting down, “I’m finally free for,” he checked his phone, “fifteen more minutes before it’s time to go back to class.”  _ Fifteen minutes to think about how very similar Ladybug must actually be to him. She has a kwami, too, after all... _

Marinette handed him a sandwich before sitting primly on the opposite side of the bench.

“Damn, dude, don’t they feed you?” Nino asked, watching with disgusted fascination as Adrien shoved the food in his mouth.

He shook his head and swallowed, “Not unless it’s a really long shoot. And I forgot to eat breakfast this morning because I overslept. Nathalie would have my head if she found out, too. I was just planning to grab, like, a granola bar or something from a vending machine before heading back to class, so whoever got these sandwiches, you are my personal hero.”

Alya gestured to a pinkening Marinette, “That would be this one here. She also made the hot chocolate.”

Nino nodded, “We hail her as some sort of food goddess. She’s been making us food since grade school.”

“Alright, I’m officially envious. I wish I’d gone to public school way sooner, then. I always had to eat healthy snacks like celery.”

Nino and Alya patted his back and arm simultaneously, “You poor boy,” Alya said.

Adrien snorted and then changed the subject, “So, Alya, how’s that alert thing coming?”

Her eyes lit up, “Great! I’ve enlisted Max to help with some of the trickier parts of the coding, but for the most part, I’ve got it covered. There are already similar things out there, so there are guides. It should be up within the next few weeks.”

“Oh, I saw your post about it on the Ladyblog,” Nino said.

Alya nodded, “Yeah, a lot of people seem to like it! I’m sure that it’ll kick off with no problem.”

They sat in companionable silence until Adrien finished stuffing his face, whereafter Alya checked her phone, and then dragged the three of them back to school in a panic. They barely made it into the classroom before the bell rang.

“Hey, Nino,” Adrien said, elbowing Nino as they sat in their seats, “what do you think of Alya’s little alert thing? Do you think it would work?”

Nino shrugged, “Probably. I mean, it makes sense, at least? Personally, I think that pretty much everyone would jump on the chance to be able to report any trouble. Ladybug and Chat Noir are the only ones who can contain the akuma, anyway, so one way or another, they’d find out, but maybe the alerts will speed it up?”

Adrien hummed in agreement, pulling out his notebook.

“By the way, what did you get for number three? I got halfway through it and then gave up.” Nino pointed to a bunch of chicken scratch scribbles on his notes.

“Googling it didn’t work?”

“Adrien, it’s a word problem.”

“There’s still programs that-”

“Dude, stop, oh, my god, just tell me what you got.”

“Alright, alright,” Adrien flipped through his notebook until he found the problem, “...”

“You don’t have it, either, do you?”

“Shut up.”

***

Plagg flew out of his pocket as soon as Adrien closed his bedroom door, flopping over on the bed dramatically and whining about how bad Adrien’s shirt smelled , how much his stomach was growling, and how utterly sick he was of calculus; he was a  _ magic cat thing _ , there was no reason for him to know advanced mathematics, and something about that teacher’s voice just kept him from being able to fall asleep. He opened a vivid green eye to a slit when Adrien collapsed on the bed next to him.

“Watch it, you almost tossed my poor, tired self off of the bed,” Plagg said, throwing an arm dramatically over his face, “I’m small and delicate, and also very hungry.”

“Never took you for the damsel in distress type.”

“Well, then, you guessed wrong. Being a damsel in distress is great! Someone else swoops in and slays the dragon, and all you have to do is sit there and look pretty. Basically, someone else does all of the work. I’m down for that.”

“All you do is sleep and eat!”

“Envious?” Plagg twitched his whiskers before throwing Adrien a cheeky grin, “I wouldn’t blame you; my life can be pretty great, after all… you know, if someone would forget to  _ feed _ me!”

“You are perfectly capable of feeding yourself, Plagg. You’re how old?”

“Older than you!” Plagg snapped, “Respect your elders!”

“As if,” Adrien kicked off his shoes, “There should be some cheese in the mini-fridge, unless you ate it all, at which point, I’m pretty sure that there’s no one in the kitchen at midnight.”

“You’re not going to get it for me?”

“No! I,” Adrien wiggled underneath the covers, “am going to sleep. Goodnight, Plagg.”

“And  _ I’m _ the old one,” Plagg muttered, before whisking off in the search for cheese.

Adrien closed his eyes for a few seconds, but inevitably cracked them open again to stay at the alarm clock next to his bed. He was too awake to go to sleep but too tired to stay awake.

So, instead, he thought about the little secret he’d hidden in the drawer underneath the alarm clock.

The notebook in his nightstand was probably Adrien’s most treasured possession, second only to his ring. It was small, the kind of notepad that could fit in a pocket, and it was nondistinct, just one of many tiny, college-ruled notebooks.

It was what was inside that was so valuable.

On the few occasions that Chat had the opportunity to write something down or scratch a word into something before he transformed back into Adrien, he tried to write down something that would help him remember his lady better.

It was a recent idea, and there weren’t a lot of words in it yet. Adrien felt a little bad about it, since he knew that Ladybug wasn’t comfortable with sharing her identity yet, but he rationalized that he wasn’t using it to figure out who she was, just to remember her better, so it was okay. Probably. It was okay.

Plagg hadn’t given him any shit for it, though, so he figured that it was okay.

Besides, how much was the word “blue” going to help him? He hadn’t had time to write down the rest of the thought, so he didn’t know what about Ladybug was blue. It could be her hair, her eyes, makeup. Heck, maybe she had a nose piercing or something and that was what was blue. He didn’t know.

He didn’t have many words written, but he treasured the ones that he did. Whenever his father skipped out on visiting him, or whenever he couldn’t fall asleep, he’d repeat them in his head, like a meditation.

_ Blue. _

_ Black. _

_ Short. _

_ Freckles. _

_ Beautiful. _

He wished that he could remember what her voice was like. He knew that she wasn’t quiet, could hear the commanding tone in her voice in recordings, but that was probably true of all superheroes. He could recognize his own voice when Chat Noir spoke, and it was teasing, but still confident.

He wished that he could remember what her lips looked like. Did she wear lipstick? Lipgloss? Did she chew on them or bite them? Were they chapped or smooth? What, dare he think it, would they feel like if she were to kiss him?

He wished that he knew.

Even if he were to lose the notebook, he’d still know the words. If he had any say in it, he’d want them engraved on his tombstone.

_ Blue. _

_ Black. _

_ Short. _

_ Freckles. _

_ Beautiful. _

Were her eyes blue? Or was it her hair? Did she have blue hair, but dark brown, almost black eyes? Was her skin darker or lighter? Where were the freckles? Her nose, her cheeks, her chin, her forehead? When he had written short, how short did he mean? He knew that she was smaller than him, could remember that she weighed so little for someone so strong, but was she a few inches or a full head shorter?

He knew that she was beautiful, as if she could be anything but breathtaking. The sculptor had done his best to capture the vague details of her that everyone knew, but as Chat Noir, he’d been able to look at it and point out of the flaws. Her hair was different, he remembered. He remembered being irritated at the inaccuracy of it. The sculpture simply couldn’t encompass all that she was.

He supposed that he should add “sweet smell” to the list, but he decided to wait until he figured out what the sweet smell was exactly. Maybe it was her perfume or her shampoo, or maybe she just like incense or something. He wished that he knew.

The fact that he didn’t know kept him up sometimes. He didn’t know nearly enough about her to be in love as much as he was, but that didn’t stop him. Plagg would groan and make puking noises (it must show on his face) whenever he thought about her, and the kwami would make passive aggressive comments about how he was wasting his time, but Adrien couldn’t find it in him to care.

_ Blue. _

_ Black. _

_ Short. _

_ Freckles. _

_ Beautiful. _

He was in love, how could he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I just really like writing Plagg as a grumpy old grandpa.  
> Now that the exposition chapters are out of the way, the fun begins~
> 
> Tune in next week for the third chapter, Reflection!


	3. Reflection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Humor,  
> fighting,  
> then angst.
> 
> :3c

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am  
> so  
> sorry that it took this long.
> 
> I had surgery like four days after posting the last update, and, boy, lemme tell you, that's not very much fun at all.

“Hey, Marinette, wanna date?” Adrien turned around in his seat to look at Marinette with a plastic bag on his lap.

Alya’s head snapped around to stare at Adrien, and Nino’s mouth gaped.

“E...excus… p… pa...pardon me?” Marinette’s cheeks flamed bright red. “I… um… sure?”

Adrien smiled. “They’re good!” He put the plastic bag on her desk. “Usually dates by themselves are just kind of ‘eh’, but these ones are actually good!”

“D...dates? Oh.” Marinette looked at the bag, “Th… thank you?”

Adrien seemed to notice that Marinette had deflated, “Something wrong?” he asked gently, “You look sad.”

The awkward silence between them was broken by the sound of Nino slamming his face into his desk.

Marinette had a tinge of pink on her cheeks all day.

***

Later that night on patrol, Ladybug waited for Chat to catch up with her, sitting down and kicking her feet over the edge of the roof. “Hey, Chat, wanna kiss?” she said, gesturing for him to come closer.

“I… what… yes.” Chat stumbled over his feet on his way over to her, almost falling down to the street below, “Always. Of course. I never thought that you’d ask...”

Ladybug quirked an eyebrow and cocked her head, “You seem eager.”

“Who wouldn’t be? I mean…” he trailed off.

Ladybug placed a silver foil-wrapped candy in his hand, “They’re an American candy, so they’re kind of interesting. They taste different.” She popped one into her mouth, “It’s kinda weird.”

Chat stared, “Oh. Thanks.” He held out his hands robotically.

“What, don't you like it?”

“No, no! I mean, yes, I do like it. I just…” he kept staring at her, and his mouth must’ve moved faster than his thoughts, because he said, “your hair is really pretty,” as a means of explanation.

Ladybug gave him a look, “Uh… thanks?”

Chat pouted for the rest of the patrol.

***

“B...but as I was saying, it's really not often that I get to eat something that isn't… well… glorified kale, so whenever my father actually lets me get pizza, it's a big deal.” Adrien shifted nervously on his bed, not sure whether to look at Ladybug or the floor. “Um… my life really isn’t that exciting… sorry…”

Ladybug fidgeted. Thinking that this was a  _ good _ idea had been the  _ worst _ idea. She could barely keep herself from blushing a vibrant shade of firetruck red when her and Adrien’s eyes met briefly. She didn’t realize that Adrien had been talking until he gave a sort of hopeless hum while staring at the floor.

She jumped, “O...oh, no, you’re not boring at all! You’re actually… really cool…” Ladybug looked at her feet, “so, uh you're eating out tonight?”

Adrien froze and unfortunately, or very fortunately, for her fantasies later, dropped his gaze between her legs before looking back up at her, face red all the way to his ears, “Well, I'd like to... WAIT, SHIT I MEAN…” he groaned, “it's uh… not quite... Our chef is just going to make it for me,” he mumbled, hiding his face in his hands.

“Oh,” Ladybug said, “That’s… th… that’s nice…”

_ Holy shit I bet he'd totally eat me out if I asked holy fucking shit the hell do I do with this information. _

She left shortly after.

***

Marinette didn’t often entertain Chat Noir at her house, or, well, her room, really, without her parents’ permission, or knowledge, but when she did, she found that he was surprisingly polite and that he made for good company. To keep her identity safe, she tried to discourage him, but they both knew that it was halfhearted at best.

Which led to her chewing bubblegum while working on her tablet, all while Chat did his best to look like he was  _ untangling _ the yarn, when really, he was just making it worse.

“Hey, Chat,” Marinette said, “check out this awesome blow job I've got going on here.”

Chat stuttered as he fell off of the couch, landing on his ass on the floor and falling over himself in his haste to look in her direction, “ _ P… paw _ don me?”

Marinette spun around in her desk chair, sporting an enormous chewing gum bubble nearly the size of her head, “I said look at my blow… job…” her eyes grew wide and the bubble popped, “WAIT, I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT.”

“I'm sure that you didn't,” Chat gave her an unimpressed look, pulling yarn out of his hair.

“Don't give me that look, you pervert cat,” Marinette hissed.

“ _ What _ look?”

“Your face is red!” she accused.

“So is yours! Considering that you just asked me to ‘check out  _ your blowjob _ ’, I think I'm allowed to blush for a little bit,” Chat muttered, crossing his legs. “Not my fault.”

“I… you know what,” Marinette covered her face, “just get out.” She pointed vaguely in the direction of her window.

“Are you kicking  _ meowt _ because  _ you _ said the innuendo?”

“ _ Out,” _ she hissed, louder this time.

Chat tried not to think of inappropriate things on his way home.

***

Marinette should’ve known something was up the second Alya’s face lit up.

Alya shrieked, nearly dropping her phone, “Mari! Nino! Adrien! The Ladyblog’s notification system just sent out a confirmed warning! There’s an akuma north of Notre Dame, in  _ le Marais _ .”

As if in accordance with Alya, an enormous boom sounded, and a huge puff of smoke or dust rose above the buildings.

“Shit,” Marinette stumbled to her feet, knocking over her chair and nearly sending the table along with it.

Adrien also jumped to his feet, and their eyes met for an awkward second before he looked away.

“W...well,” Marinette said, “I should… I should go check if my parents are okay! Yep!”

“Wait!” Alya grabbed her arm, “your parents are literally kilometers away from here. They’ll be fine. It’s you I’m worried about.”

“All the more reason for me to go in that direction! Yes!” Marinette shouted and then wiggled out of Alya’s grip, dancing around the other girl as she navigated her way out of the caf è. “I’ll see you later, bye!”

Adrien also sidestepped Nino’s attempt to corral him in and ran towards the metro station with a shouted excuse of, “Sorry, need to use the bathroom, bye!” Before long, he was lost in the crowd of people spilling out into the streets to get a better look at the distant akuma.

Marinette ducked into an alley and hid behind a dumpster as a group of people ran passed. Tikki zoomed out of her purse, and Marinette cupped the kwami in her hands, “Seems as though lunch is ruined.”

“Duty calls!” Tikki squeaked.

A pink flash later, and Ladybug was zipping across the roofs of Paris towards the cloud.

Having heard the akuma’s formation from over two kilometers away, Ladybug approached cautiously; she had a bad feeling that this one wasn’t going to go down easily.

The loud ones  _ never _ went down easily.

She watched as a shimmering villain had risen above the buildings, encased in light that was nearly blinding. Small translucent wings flittered on the akuma’s back, and as she swung closer, she could see the glowing horn on the villain’s forehead.

She had to give the flying woman points for a dramatic entrance and points for the unicorn theme. That was fun, at least.

A solitary fleeing civilian shouted something about “licorne”, and Ladybug guessed that was what the akuma had called herself.

_ Licorne _ held a small compact hand mirror in front of her and studied her reflection, giving Ladybug time to take cover in front of a small salon, her back to the store front’s glass windows. She watched the tops of the buildings. Hopefully, Chat Noir would be here soon.

She scanned the streets for any sign of life, and a tumbleweed would not have been out of place, because as far as Ladybug could see, the area was deserted. Breathing a sigh of relief, the sound of someone tapping the glass behind her was nearly drowned out by her heartbeat. Slowly, the tapping grew more frantic, and by the time she noticed, it sounding like dozens of people were rapping their knuckles on the other side of the window. 

When she turned around, Ladybug suddenly understood why there weren’t any civilians around, and a deep fear for Chat, wherever he was, bloomed in her chest.

There were easily two dozen people in the window behind her, half of them frantically slamming on the glass to get her attention, but they weren’t in the salon, even though some of them had soapy hair and strips of foil on their heads.

Ladybug moved to the side with a hand over her mouth, and the people in the window clawed at the glass.

They weren’t in the building,  _ they were in the glass _ , trapped in the reflection.

Ladybug glanced up at Licorne. The akuma hadn’t moved, still staring at her reflection a dozen meters above the tops of the buildings. The silence in the streets was chilling, the reflections of over a hundred people staring at her from the windows of every building, every car, even the puddles on the sidewalk.

Her ears rung.

_ Where was Chat? _

She could hear fingernails on glass behind her.

_ What if he had been there when the akuma had been formed? _

There was a crying toddler in the car window in front of her.

_ The akumas almost always form near us. _

Licorne still hadn’t moved. Ladybug watched her, trying to stamp the cowardice out of her heart. Tikki was strangely silent, and there wasn’t even a breeze to rustle the leaves of the trees.

The city held its breath with her.

_ What if he’s already…? There’s so many windows; I would never find him, not without being seen. _

She was so absorbed in silent panic that she couldn’t hear the soft landing of a cat behind her, and missed the sound of a pole retracting.

“My lady?” Chat asked quietly behind her.

She jumped, yelping and turning around to see him standing with a surprisingly concerned expression.

“Are you okay?” he asked, tentatively taking one of her hands and squeezing it for reassurance.

“I… yes, I am. I think. I just got…” she gestured at the people surrounding them, “...frightened.”

“Well, ne _ fur _ fear,  _ mon cherie _ , your knight is here.”

Ladybug returned the squeeze even if she groaned, “I can’t believe I missed you.”

“My lady missed me? Well, I-”

“Shh!” she raised a finger to his lips, and he went cross-eyed staring at it, “I think that she might have seen us… or heard me when you startled me.”

“The akuma?”

“I think that her name is Licorne. She’s been staring at her mirror for awhile now. By the time I got here, all of these people were already trapped in the glass.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, so, shoosh,” Ladybug pushed him back into an alley as they watched Licorne descend a few meters to hover in the street. “I don’t know how her mirror works,” she whispered.

“You think that the akuma is in the mirror?”

“Obviously. Where else would it be?”

Chat held his hands up, “I wouldn’t know. I was just checking.”

“Speaking of checking, you took a while to show up today. I was worried that I’d have to take care of this one on my own.” Ladybug poked her head around the shop corner to check the scene.

The akuma still hadn’t moved, but the street’s silence was disturbed by what she now knew to be the trapped people trying to claw their way out of the glass. The crying toddler that she’d seen earlier was no longer crying, an elderly woman rocking him in her arms. All of the akuma’s victims turned as one when a new sound disturbed the streets.

Chat tensed up beside Ladybug, but he remained silent.

Someone yelled, and it echoed. Licorne’s attention snapped to a small group of people who had turned the corner, and both Ladybug and Chat reached for their weapons as they saw Hawk Moth’s insignia appear over her face. 

Somewhere, a dog barked.

Multiple things happened at once.

Firstly, the group of people turned tail and ran away as fast as they could; the citizens of Paris knew a supervillain when they saw one. Secondly, Licorne shot back up into the air, her wings flaring up behind her and yet another beam of light beginning to gather in front of her mirror. Then, Hawk Moth’s symbol disappeared.

Ladybug was already between the group of civilians and Licorne by the time that the beam had charged up enough to fire. She deflected it by swinging her yo-yo with one hand. 

Chat landed on all fours beside her, “Anything you’d like some help with, my lady?”

“Distract her.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll have her off of  _ fur _ back in no time!”

Ladybug turned back to the people behind her as Chat shouted at the akuma. She pushed them back, “Get out of here! Find somewhere safe and  _ wait _ until there’s update on whether it’s safe or not to go out!”

Turning away from them before they could answer, Ladybug swung up to the roof of a nearby building, watching as Chat dodged thin little light beams, “Hey, Licorne! Don’t you have anything better to do than play with kittens and laser pointers?”

Licorne didn’t even look at her, “Don’t even speak to me.”

“...” Ladybug looked down at Chat, who just returned her clueless look before running away from another light beam, “Uh… you kinda need to… stop… that,” Ladybug said lamely.

Licorne ignored her. 

She resisted the urge to groan. Supervillain backtalk was usually way more boasting than it was condescending, and this akuma wasn’t as much condescending as she just… didn’t seem to care.

Well, shit. 

The akuma finally acknowledged her, “And who’s going to make me?” Licorne said, “Your little BDSM cat boy down there? Or you, in that god-awful get up?”

“I-”

“It’s not even  _ designer. _ ” Licorne wrinkled her nose, “And yet you have the audacity to strut around in it. Should I be insulting your fashion sense or complimenting your bravery here?”

The similarity to Chloe was not lost on either of them. 

Ladybug frowned. 

Chat stumbled.

On one hand, Ladybug wanted to defend herself because  _ godammit Gabriel Agreste himself had complimented her designs _ , but on the other hand, it didn’t matter; it was an akuma, so she shouldn’t let it get to her.

Chat, however, was not nearly as composed.

“You take that back!” he snarled, “you  _ horse! _ ”

Ladybug looked down at him in confusion while Licorne narrowed her eyes.

“Well, looks like kitty  _ does _ have claws, even if he doesn’t know how to use them.” Licorne turned back to Ladybug, “Unfortunately, my ‘benefactor’ needs your tacky jewelry, so, while I deal with him, why don’t you take a break in that store over there? I’m sure that you can find something better to wear.”

Ladybug took some hurried steps back, pulling out her yo-yo and slipping the string between her fingers, “Bring it on.”

Before Licorne could charge up her mirror to attack, though, Chat stabbed his baton into the pavement and extended it, “Don’t even think about it!”

“As if you could stop me.”

“You wanna bet on that?” Chat snarled, balancing on his baton in front of Ladybug.

“I don’t gamble.”

Ladybug moved to the side silently as Chat and Licorne traded insults. If he could just keep her attention for another forty-five seconds… she might be able to knock the mirror out of the akuma’s hands. She let her yo-yo dangle between her fingers, waiting for an opening. 

She was just about to strike when Licorne’s gaze locked on her.

“Did you really think that it would be that easy, Ladybug?” she said, charging up her mirror.

Dodging to the left, and feeling the heat of the mirror-beam pass hairs away from her waist, Ladybug swung around a streetlamp. She heard Chat shout behind her, but didn’t register what he’d said until there was another blast of light, but this one headed at her face.

And it wasn’t about to miss.

In a move that would later be all over Paris headlines, especially the Ladyblog, Chat Noir launched himself off of the baton and knocked Ladybug into the side of a building. The blast missed both of them, but Ladybug gasped for breath as the wind was knocked out of her.

Chat hissed at Licorne, who just glared at him.

“Chat, you wonderful idiot, don’t antagonize her.” Ladybug gave Chat’s shoulder a gentle pat, and he leaned into her touch. “You were right about one thing, Licorne, you’re not going to make this easy.”

Licorne smiled, “Figured it out, huh? I’m surprised that you even have the wits to call him  _ idiot. _ I suppose that it takes one to know one, though?” She aimed the mirror towards them, and the metal glinted as another beam of light began to charge.

The dangerous growl rising in Chat’s chest was the only warning Ladybug received before he catapulted himself off the side of the building, swinging his baton in front of him to intercept the blast. The akuma shrieked, and then both Licorne and Chat were plummeting to the ground in Chat’s attempt to tackle her. 

Ladybug and Chat realized how much of a mistake it had been at about the same time, because a much higher pitched hum split the air as Licorne threw Chat off of her.

“Shit,” Ladybug muttered, swooping down to catch her partner and lifting him to safety.

Chat coughed, “So, uh, plan B?”

“How about plan ‘don’t try head-on confrontation with the supervillain’?”

“Sounds good,” he said.

Ladybug sighed, and then yelped as a needle-thin, supercharged laser beam sheared off half of the building they stood on, sending stone and wood crumbling to the street below to rise in a massive dust cloud. Chat’s arm wrapped around her waist as he dragged her out of Licorne’s line of sight.

“I think I made her mad.”

“You  _ think? _ ”

“I… shit!” he yelled, shoving her behind him, “incoming!”

“Well, then, move! Don’t just stand there!”

A high-pitched whistle approached, and Ladybug knocked Chat to the ground, rolling on top of him as another blast tored through the spot they’d just been occupying.

Licorne descended then, her little wings fluttering behind her, “How cute. Too bad I have to split you two up.”

“No, don’t-” Chat began, before his eyes widened and his pupils shrank, and he grabbed Ladybug and flipped their positions.

Ladybug’s eye narrowed in the fraction of a second that she had to react; she could bet on what Chat had just done, and she wasn’t happy about it.

Chat Noir shielded her as a beam of light blasted him through an alley and two streets over. 

“Chat!” Ladybug yelled, jumping to safety as what remained of the building crumbled to the ground, and Licorne retreated a street over to follow where Chat had been blasted, looking at the rubble in mild condescension.

“Chat?!” Ladybug repeated, zipping over and shielding her eyes from the dirt and dust. She watched Licorne’s hovering figure carefully, but the akuma seemed to have briefly lost interest in them. Her gut clenched as she was reminded of a predator toying with its prey, “ _ Chaton _ ? Are you okay? Where are you?” she coughed.  _ Giant dust clouds, superhero occupational hazard.  _ “Kitty?”

“...-bug? La...bug?”

She whipped around. She could’ve sworn that she’d just heard… “Kitty?”

“Over here!” His voice was quiet.

She walked over to the left, ducking behind a potted plant as Licorne shot back up into the sky above the streets, glancing over the ruins and rubble with renewed interest.

“Ladybug?”

She jumped; he was right behind her. “Chat? Wha-... oh, shit.”

“Yeahhh…” his voice was small.

Ladybug;’s voice cracked, “Kitty, you have to stop doing that. I don’t want… you’re going to get seriously hurt one day… and this is bad enough as is...” she leaned against his reflection.

Chat shrugged from the window pane. “At least I can talk?” He looked down, “Seems like you’re on your own for now… again… sorry. We know that the akuma is definitely in the mirror at least. Just… don’t get hit by any of her blasts, okay? We can’t have you getting hurt or trapped either.”

Ladybug straightened up, with a cautious glance up at the akuma, “I know, kitten,” she put her hand on the glass, “We’ll figure this out. We always do.” She rested her head against the glass, and it might’ve been her imagination, but she would’ve sworn that she could feel warmth from the other side as Chat mirrored her actions, pressing his clawed hand against hers and resting his messy blond head against hers.

“Be safe, my lady,” he whispered.

She copied his two-finger salute and reluctantly stepped away.

Once back to facing Licorne, who if Ladybug was going to be completely honest with herself, didn’t actually seem to be wanting to fight either of them beyond just antagonizing them, she called out her lucky charm and looked down at the bag of… Miraculous-Gro ™.

_ I fucking swear to god, Tikki. _

“Hey, Licorne!” she shouted, holding up the bag of potting soil.

The akuma froze as something flashed in her eyes, “Plants?”

“Nope!” Ladybug chucked the bag as hard as she could, watching with satisfaction as it exploded against the akuma, dousing her in dirt.

While Licorne was distracted, Ladybug threw her yo-yo and knocked the mirror out of Licorne’s hand, pouncing on the possessed object and crushing it as quickly as she could. The black butterfly fluttered out, and Ladybug captured it before it could escape, cleansing and freeing it.

After the miraculous cure had dissipated, the streets were crowded full of people, and Ladybug knelt next to blonde woman who’d just been freed from her akuma.

She held out a hand, “Are you okay?”

The woman stood up, dusting off her shorts, “Fine,” she said.

“Oh, uh, okay… as long as you’re okay then…”

A mob of Parisians descended on Ladybug then, and she backed away, searching for black cat ears in the crowd. A microphone was shoved in her face, but she pushed it away and darted into the crowd.

“Chat?” Ladybug called, wading through the throngs of newly free civilians, “Kitty?”

“Over here!” she heard an answering cry, and she swung over to land near it. “My lady! As radiant as ever! You did a  _ meow _ velous job of cleansing that akuma, if I s-” he was cut off as his breath wheezed out of him in a cough, as Ladybug shoved him against a brick wall, hard. “Uh… not that I’d ever say no… but there are people here and-”

“Don’t you,” Ladybug hissed, “ _ ever _ do that again.”

“I…”

“You  _ idiot _ cat! You throw yourself between me and the villain every time! You’re not a human shield!” she swallowed, trying to fight against the tears in her eyes and trying to keep her voice as steady as possible, “You’re my partner. Don’t throw yourself away that easily.”

“My lady…” Chat breathed, “I take the blows that are meant for you, that’s what I  _ do. _ ”

“Well, don’t! Don’t do it!” Ladybug wiped at her eyes, “What am I going to do if you get hurt? What would I do without you?” she cried, sinking against his chest. 

His arms came up, unsure, to wrap around her.

“I don’t know how far the miraculous cure goes.  _ We _ don’t know. What if you get hurt  _ after _ I cure it? You need to take care of yourself, for me, for yourself, because,” her voice cracked, “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Ladybug, I promise-”

“ _ Don’t. _ Don’t promise unless you mean it. Don’t promise me unless you’ll actually get out of the way next time.”

“...”

She shuddered, “I just… can’t keep seeing you like that.”

“My lady,” Chat said, gently grabbing her chin to tilt her face upwards, “you know that I’ll always take the hit that’s meant for you. You’re more important than me, not because I don’t value myself or my life, but because,” he grinned shakily, “you’re gonna hate me for how cheesy this sounds, but I throw myself in the way because  _ I love you _ , my lady, and I always will.”

Ladybug cried, and even the warning beep of her miraculous in her ear couldn’t pry her away from Chat until he loosened her arms from him and said, “We should go.”

She looked at him and wiped at her red eyes, “Kitty… I… you know I don’t quite return your feelings… not in the way you’d want, but,” she stared him down as she tried to control her raw voice, “that doesn’t mean that I don’t love you, too.”

Ladybug watched Chat’s eyes widen, and watched his grin spread, before his ring beeped again, and he stepped back hesitantly.

“I’ll see you later, my lady.”

“I’ll see you later,” she echoed. “Kitten.”

He saluted and ran off.

Later, in her room, Marinette, angrily dug through her desk until she found her sketchbook, the one that she’d designated as her secret “superhero relief” sketchbook, and began to angrily sketch the akuma and Chat, with harsh, dark lines that nearly stabbed through the paper and couldn’t be erased.

She drew his expression as it had been when he’d been trapped in the window and had just seen her: relief.

She drew him looking at her with so much raw adoration in his eyes that it made her skin burn.

She drew his face when he’d realized that she’d finally told him that she loved him.

Eventually, Tikki nudged the pencil out of Marinette’s hand, and she went to sleep, deigning to deal with the itchy, dried tear tracks on her face tomorrow.

***

For Adrien, it was similar.

He opened up his notebook and wrote down one word in shaky lettering that he’d not written down in his notebook before.

_ Love. _

_ She loves me, _ he thought.

Plagg gave Adrien a look, but he was too far gone on cloud nine for the kwami’s opinion to bother him.

_ She loves me _ , he thought again.

It was more than “just a start”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this is relatively unbeta'ed... therefore feedback and critique is much appreciated!
> 
> As it is, this is projected to have about 15- 16 chapters. The past two were just exposition so! this one! is where shit starts happening!!! :3c
> 
> Idk when I'll have the next one done, but watch for chapter four: Twenty-four Carats/Carrots!


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